At the time they were married Albert was as a carpenter working on a construction crew building the Flume Line. As there were hundreds of construction personnel, and little information on individual living conditions, we do not know where he lived. Albert probably did not live at home due to the difficulty of commuting to work from his family home.

Frances was living in the home shown above. She had taught school at a schoolhouse on Horns Creek road just east of the intersection of Swan road, less than a half mile from home.

On March 17th, 1913 Frances and Albert had their first child, Frank Albert.(For information on any persons in the Rymer family, click on "Rymer History" in the top tab and then click on "Lineage" in the left panel) At the time they were living at the mouth of Goforth creek where it empties into the Ocoee river. There were two very small cabins taking up all of the level ground in the area.

The Flume Line was finished a few months after Frank was born, the construction workers were laid off and Albert's career as a carpenter was over. After being laid off Albert and Frances moved to a house about a mile south of her family home on Swan road. We have no data on this but until there is some proof, we will believe they were renting. Sue was born there in October, 1914. For the rest of his life Albert was a farmer.

About the same time the Rymer family moved to Polk county (1830's), the McCamy family moved to Murray county Georgia. (These counties share a common border) Both families moved in as soon as, or maybe a little before, the indians were removed. One of the McCamys settled on over 600 acres in an area known locally as "Fairy Valley". This farm had remained in the family and at the time was owned by Howard McCamy, Frances's brother. Howard needed someone to run the farm as he was a businessman in Kentucky and Albert needed a larger farm to support his growing family. As later told, at Howard's urging, Frances and Albert moved to Murray county. Howard was to furnish financing when needed and Albert was to manage the farm. Details of this arrangement are not known. The farm had at least the following houses on it at this time:
1. A nice house on the main road from Knoxville to Atlanta, now US 411
2. A house a few hundred yards west of the main house
3. A house on the east side of the farm, across the creek and up next to Sand Mountain. This was a poor tenant house.

Probably during the early 1920's, but maybe a few years before, Frances's brother John took possession of an acre or so of the farm on the main road at the northern border. John, who never married, build a very nice home for his parents and himself on this property. This house was 200 - 300 yards north of the main farm house.

Sometime between 1914 and 1919, a deal was struck with Howard on Albert managing the farm, Frances, Albert and family moved to the farm in Murray County Georgia. On March 4th, 1919 Elizabeth was born in the house west of the main house.

Shortly after Elizabeth was born the family moved into the main house on what is now US Highway 411. Onie was born in the main house on June 9th 1921 The family kept getting larger

The early 1920's were a good time for farmers and for The United States, we had just won the "War to end all Wars", technology was increasing at a rapid pace, production was booming and the prices farmers received for farm products such as; cotton and grain were high. Albert was a man who studied farming and used good farming practices, he ran a large productive farm and took care of both the farm and equipment. As a modern farmer, Albert had one of the first tractors and associated equipment in the area. It was a large tractor with steel wheels and about 6 miles per hour top speed. Albert and his family were a relatively well to do farm family. In looking back it is easy to see a decline in the price of farm products, starting in 1927 was the first indication of the great depression which was to follow. However, no one can foresee the future and everyone expected the good times to continue.

In the 1920's a Delco plant was installed in a small building just back of the house. Delco was a company who developed a gasoline engine coupled to a generator that charged a number of batteries. The furnished power to a home or business. Each battery was in a rectangle shaped glass jar large enough to hold about 2 gallons of liquid. As each battery provided 2 volts, a small unit contained 16 batteries. The batteries and engine required frequent maintenance as the liquid level in the batteries was critical to the operation. These were very popular in rural areas for those who could afford them. Delco was bought out by General Motors; Delco batteries are still produced for cars and trucks.

On June 12th, 1926 Mary was born in the same house as Onie. Albert and Frances now have 5 children and only the oldest one was a boy. Frank now 13, was a hard worker and able to do a lot of work in the fields. The older girls also helped in the fields hoeing and other of the less strenuous tasks.

From the beginning of farming until the 1930's farmers had two goals; the first was to raise food for themselves and to feed the cows, horses and other farm animals, the second was to raise something they could sell for money, "cash crops" as they were known. Usually a farmer had two or more "cash crops" such as potato's, wheat, cotton and corn. One of Albert's "cash crops" was to grow sweet potato "slips" to sell to neighbors. This entailed building a long rectangle about 4 feet wide, by laying logs on the ground and filling the rectangle with sawdust. Sweet potatoes were then buried in the sawdust, which was kept wet. The rectangle or "bed" was covered with a very thin cloth which allowed the sunlight in, but prevented frost from killing the tender plants. In a few days, young plants, called slips, grew from the potato's begin to grow through the sawdust, when they were about 6 - 8 inches high the slips were picked and bundled into bunches of 25, 50, or 100. Other farmers would come by and buy the number of slips they wanted. Onie and Elizabeth can remember picking and bundling the slips.

In 1928, Frances was again with child, what if it was another girl? While farm prices continued to drop, 1928 was a good year, it was a boy, John born on May 21st and Albert bought a new "A" model Ford car.

In the 1920's, we are not sure of the year, Albert who loved to hunt had a very good hunting dog and was offered $500.00 for it, about the same as the price of a new "A" model Ford. He turned it down, three months later the dog got distemper and died.

1931 was a terrible year. The depression was heavy upon the land and hit farmers especially hard. The year began cold and wet, Albert was out in the cold and rain trying to sell farm products when he became sick. Albert became sicker and was taken to the hospital in Knoxville, Frances who heavy with child, stayed on the farm. On January 31st she gave birth to Bob. The next day Albert died with spinal meningitis. His body was brought back from Knoxville and he was buried at Summerhour cemetery. If this was not enough for Frances, left with 7 children from one day to 17 years old, more trouble became manifest later that same year.

Howard had borrowed money to buy the farm, from his sister Roberta and her husband Ben Rucker. He could not make the payments, the Ruckers foreclosed. Ben Rucker, who had been superintendent of schools in Knoxville, decided he wished to retire from his job, move to the farm and become a farmer. Frances and her family was given until December of 1933 to move. After Albert and Frances were married, Frances's mother and father sold the farm where they were married to Lena (the oldest daughter) and her husband, Bob Erwin. In 1932 Bob was in his 60's and wanted to semi-retire from farming. Frances, with the help of a government program to provide low cost loans for farmers to buy land and equipment started in 1916, bought the house she was married in together with approximately 50 acres of the farm for $2,000.00. The loan may have been for more than $2,000.00 because Frank bought a pair of young mules, Matt and Mandy, and a plow along with other equipment needed. Farmers at that time normally moved at the year end, the last crops were in and when it was time to start preparing for new crops. On the first on January, 1934 Frank moved to the house where Harry and Kathy Rymer now live (2010).

Prior to the depression the Shed Presbyterian church had a full time pastor, a manse for the pastor was built on the corner of Horns Creek road from about an acre of the old farm. As the depression grew, roads and transportation became easier, people began to go further to church, the membership and attendance at the Shed declined until it could no longer support a pastor. As a result, the church became a "yoked" church meaning one pastor served 3 or 4 churches visiting and preaching on say the 3rd Sunday of each month. The manse was no longer used and The Erwins bought it and moved into it when Frank moved into the house we bought.

But we digress, to schools in Georgia. From the home in Georgia the nearest school was called "Halls Chapel" a one room church half a mile or so through the woods southwest of where we lived and used as a school during the week. Halls Chapel was a grammar school, grades 1 - 8 and had two teachers who each taught 4 grades. For those who wanted to go further the school was in Eton, a few miles south. There was one catch, transportation was not furnished. Frances and Albert saw to schooling Frank, Sue, Elizabeth and Onie by having them board with a family in Eton during the week.

Frances, who had a teaching degree from Young-Harris college, obtained a job teaching at Halls Chapel for the 1933-34 year. John, who was barely 5, attended as a first grade student. We remember the pay as $15.00 per month. Frances, together with Mary and John walked across the woods every day to Halls Chapel, Elizabeth and Onie stayed and went to school in Eton. Frank and Sue had finished high school. When school was out the rest of the family moved to Tennessee where Frank had been busy getting ready to plant the new crops.

During the years the Erwins had lived in the old house not much maintenance was done. The house at one time had been painted white had only specks of paint smaller than the size of a pencil eraser left to tell it had once been painted. Inside maintenance had also been neglected. Parts of the roof were the original wooden shingles, over 50 years old. In the winter when it snowed, if you slept in one of the upstairs bedrooms, you sometimes would wake up with snow flakes on the covers.

The farm was a "dry" farm meaning no running streams on it to furnish water for the stock. The house was located on top of a hill and, according to the story, a well had been dug but no water was found. At any rate, both the family and the animals water came from cisterns. One cistern collecting water from the north side of the barn and and two cisterns, one on each side of the eastern part of the house furnishing water for the family. If I remember correctly, at the time we moved the gutters were wooden boards nailed in a "V" shape.

When we lived in Georgia the family attended the Summerhour Methodist Church, where Frances's mother and father along with other family members were buried. In Polk County there was not a Methodist Church in the area so we attended The Shed Presbyterian church. It was an old church, established in the 1839, the same year Polk County was formed. After World War II the number of attendees declined until the church was closed. For more info about The Shed Click Here.

Times were hard in Tennessee, the farm was run down, cotton was 10 cents a pound, after it was ginned. Our corn crop was about 300 bushels which was just enough to feed the animals and provide corn meal for cornbread for the family. Frank, who was 20 when we moved, worked from daylight to after dark to provide for his mother and six siblings. He also kept up with the latest farming practices and applied them to the farm. He built terraces to help hold in the water where it fell, planted legumes for providing hay and building up the soil. One of the legumes was imported from Korea by the dept of Agriculture and touted about all of its properties. Problem was it made lousy hay and animals would only eat it to keep from starving. Today you see it along road banks to prevent erosion.

As the economy improved Frank worked both the farm and other jobs. He worked at Dixie Foundry (later Magic Chef) in Cleveland for 13 cents per hour and went out on strike for higher wages. When US 64 highway was paved he got a job inspecting the quality of the concrete. He also got a job building a transmission line to the powerhouse above Reliance, he recalled carrying up to 20 foot long lengths of steel to build transmission towers from the road to the top of each mountain or hill in the middle of summer.

More to be added 12/4/09
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